Um, I hate to make such a good poster look bad but it's a two year 19 million dollar contract. Or in other words 9.5 mil per year, exactly 500k more than the Astros gave Billy Wagner a few years back. It has no bearing on Clemens and arbitration.
http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=1136 Go ahead and vote on it and put your opinions out there =)
doh! I forgot arbitration decisions could be for more than 1 year i thought 19 MIL per year for a closer sounded ridiculous thats what i get for not reading one word of the article
there was no arbitration for gagne. He and the dodgers struck the 2 yr - 19 million deal to avoid arbitration. 9.5 per year avg for 2 years.
I agree. An arbitrator will bring the figure down. Like it or not Clemens is due fair market value for his services. The guy won a Cy Young last year plus posted 18 wins. My guess is the contract is at or just above Johnson's contract.
He is going to get some major money basically because of the attendance he brings to the Stadium every time he pitches. He sells out every game he pitches and add all the concessions sales and stuff. Drayton makes a lot of money of off that. Clemens gets a incentive bases on attendance and i am sure Drayton is not going to care about paying him that much money becuase of the hype it brings to the team. Right now he is gonig to need something to fill the stands and Roger is going to be his biggest bet. The amount of return you get with paying Roger that much is far greater than the cost of having him. So much merchandise, ticketing, and concession sales will make this an easy pick....and it's only for a year we are talking about.
an arbitrator can not bring it down its either 22mil or 13.5... the team and roger can settle on something before it gets that far though.
hmm... forgot to ask this but is the $22 mill for a year or more than a year? because if it's more than a year, (while still high for something like 2 years) then it might not be such a bad number but $22 mill for one season??
A season is never predicted by the season's start. Teams makes runs and that's why the seasons are played! The Cards were not given a chance to win the Central last year, neither were the Florida Marlins a couple years back, nor the Anaheim Angels before that. The Astros lost Beltran, Kent, Miller, etc, which means that someone else will have to step up. Pettite might have to win some games for us; Backe might have to improve from what he already gave last year. Oswalt might have to be Cy Young-like and Bagwell, Biggio, and Co. might have to give it all they got. Every game is winnable in baseball. If some games are so far-fetched that there's no way a team can win, then there won't be Sportbooks placing lines for millions of people to bet (lose money) on. Also, a team's goal is to stay in contention long enough. Sure, the Astros will probably have almost no chance at all to run away with the division, but if they can stay within 5 games of the division lead or the wild card, who is to say that they won't be able to operate a trade and get someone that could put us over the top? The season hasn't even started, but everyone's already blaming the owner for not spending ridiculous amounts of money for one Center Fielder, 22 million for a 42 year old Cy Young winner, 9 mil for an aging 2nd Baseman, 2-4 million on a former big game winner with a question mark for a shoulder, etc.... Next, a rookie GM is blamed for not being able to contact an agent who has every intention to screw a team up because he held the cards. The Astros hasn't even played one game! What if Beltran displayed numbers a little above Richard Hidalgo? What if Clemens turning 43 and loses Velocity like Pedro does. Each team has a "$" value place on a player; maybe it's not worth it to pay $200 for a chance to win.
Wonder how Drayton will screw the pooch this time. Can't wait to find out... If this offseason is any indication, Drayton will balk at giving Roger free parking at the stadium and that will be the deal breaker. They'll probably run out of time before that item can be thoroughly negotiated.
clemens deserves atleast 16-18 million next year if you base it on market value. he was underpaid last season and went on to win the cy young and was at the minimum one of the top 2 pitchers in the NL. for a one year contract the astros should have no problem paying him especially with no beltran and no real high-dollar free agents left. if you think drayton would let clemens walk if he really wants to come back, you're insane. the number he asked for may seem shockingly high but it's not that much more then he deserves. he's not coming back for another 5 million.
Keeps getting better and better and better. Man..... Thanks for the memories last season Clemens. Ugh.
